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B1G Thoughts: Ranking the Big Ten football coaches for the 2024 season
JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images
It’s the ranking season, so let’s rank Big Ten Coaches going into the 2024 season.
Every week after the Big Ten games, I will bring you some B1G thoughts on everything that happened! This will include analysis, stats, key players, moments, and more. With the Big Ten expanding from 14 teams to 18 teams in 2024 this article will also include the newest members, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington. Check out the “I-80 Football Show” for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
It’s the off-season which means it’s talking season. All of your favorite and most hated analysts, Twitter “gurus” and fans spend weeks arguing and ranking any and everything. So why not join in, this is my 2024 edition of the Big Ten rankings. I did this in 2023 but please don’t reference it because I didn’t and therefore have no idea what I said and can not be held liable for any changes.
While it’s not official until later this summer the Big Ten is expanding to 18 teams which means even more coaches to rank and create a stir on social media. In my opinion, this ranking is one of the hardest to do because for starters there are not nearly as many bad coaches in the conference as there have been previously. If you follow me or listen to my podcast you’ll know I’ve been leading the charge to fire bad coaches and almost everyone on my list has been axed, I’m still coming for you, Kirk.
The 2024 version of the Big Ten includes two first-time head coaches Sherrone Moore and DeShaun Foster. Two coaches entering their second year as coaches Ryan Walters and David Braun, as well as five experienced coaches who are either first or second-year coaches at their Big Ten school in Jedd Fisch, Jonathan Smith, Matt Rhule, Curt Cignetti, and Luke Fickell. Dan Lanning and Lincoln Riley have been at USC and Oregon respectively for two seasons but their third season will be their first in the Big Ten. This is a long way to say the Big Ten is influx and regardless of their level of confidence or how loud they scream it, no one knows anything about these coaches entering 2024.
Yet… it’s no fun to not rank them! I have no problem being wrong or putting my opinion to paper so let’s do it. Here are my rankings for the 2024 Big Ten Coaches as well as some of my thoughts on a few coaches.
Oregon fans are one of the loudest fan bases on my timeline and will ultimately have a major issue with Dan Lanning being seven so let’s get this out of the way. I think Lanning is a good coach with a lot of potential. I think he has the best chance of anyone to jump Ryan Day and earn the spot as the best coach in the Big Ten. He is young, charismatic, can cut a promo that would make the WWE proud, and is an aggressive recruiter. All of that can be true but it’s also true that he has only been a coach for two seasons and has lost all the important games he’s played. He lost to Georgia which shouldn’t be held against him but he’s also 0-3 against Washington including 0-2 in 2023 with a PAC-12 championship and a spot in the CFB Playoff on the line.
Bret Bielema has three Big Ten championships with Wisconsin and is in the process of turning around a historically bad program with half the resources of Oregon. Cignetti has won multiple FCS national championships and went 19-4 at James Madison. Luke Fickell went undefeated in back-to-back seasons at Cincy and brought a G5 team to the playoffs. Oregon plays Illinois and Wisconsin this year and I’m going to pick them to win both games but I can’t justify putting Lanning over proven winners who have done it in the Big Ten or at multiple schools at multiple levels.
This is simple, James Franklin could go 19-8 in two years at USC in the PAC-12. I don’t think Riley could go 21-5 the last two seasons at Penn State in the Big Ten East. To be clear, with Riley’s last two rosters, I’d bet my next paycheck that Franklin would win the conference and make the playoffs. If Franklin has Caleb Williams at Penn State he probably wins the Big Ten last year. Riley is a good coach, Day, Riley, and Franklin all have issues when it comes to winning big games, especially against other top 5 programs but Franklin won at Vanderbilt and brought Penn State out of harsh sanctions while Riley went 7-6 with the soon to be no. one pick Caleb Williams didn’t win a conference title or make the playoffs either.
Kirk may be better than the ninth-best coach in the conference but he refuses to develop an offense, had to be forced to fire his nepo baby son, and was in the Big Ten West. It’s hard to give credit to a guy who is winning despite himself. He also has had no real success against any Big Ten East team which also counts in his legacy.
I struggled with Braun because you could argue going 8-5 at Northwestern was the best coaching job in the country last season. Especially when you consider the state of the program when he received it and the fact that Northwestern is facing multiple lawsuits from athletes in various sports regarding hazing and racial discrimination. I predicted Northwestern would win one game last semester and he won eight. Still, it was one season and the Big Ten is about to get harder, I’m rooting for him to do it again though!
Continue reading...
JordanW330 via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images
It’s the ranking season, so let’s rank Big Ten Coaches going into the 2024 season.
Every week after the Big Ten games, I will bring you some B1G thoughts on everything that happened! This will include analysis, stats, key players, moments, and more. With the Big Ten expanding from 14 teams to 18 teams in 2024 this article will also include the newest members, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington. Check out the “I-80 Football Show” for more in-depth analysis and to preview the next week of B1G games.
It’s the off-season which means it’s talking season. All of your favorite and most hated analysts, Twitter “gurus” and fans spend weeks arguing and ranking any and everything. So why not join in, this is my 2024 edition of the Big Ten rankings. I did this in 2023 but please don’t reference it because I didn’t and therefore have no idea what I said and can not be held liable for any changes.
While it’s not official until later this summer the Big Ten is expanding to 18 teams which means even more coaches to rank and create a stir on social media. In my opinion, this ranking is one of the hardest to do because for starters there are not nearly as many bad coaches in the conference as there have been previously. If you follow me or listen to my podcast you’ll know I’ve been leading the charge to fire bad coaches and almost everyone on my list has been axed, I’m still coming for you, Kirk.
The 2024 version of the Big Ten includes two first-time head coaches Sherrone Moore and DeShaun Foster. Two coaches entering their second year as coaches Ryan Walters and David Braun, as well as five experienced coaches who are either first or second-year coaches at their Big Ten school in Jedd Fisch, Jonathan Smith, Matt Rhule, Curt Cignetti, and Luke Fickell. Dan Lanning and Lincoln Riley have been at USC and Oregon respectively for two seasons but their third season will be their first in the Big Ten. This is a long way to say the Big Ten is influx and regardless of their level of confidence or how loud they scream it, no one knows anything about these coaches entering 2024.
Yet… it’s no fun to not rank them! I have no problem being wrong or putting my opinion to paper so let’s do it. Here are my rankings for the 2024 Big Ten Coaches as well as some of my thoughts on a few coaches.
Dan Lanning, Oregon
Oregon fans are one of the loudest fan bases on my timeline and will ultimately have a major issue with Dan Lanning being seven so let’s get this out of the way. I think Lanning is a good coach with a lot of potential. I think he has the best chance of anyone to jump Ryan Day and earn the spot as the best coach in the Big Ten. He is young, charismatic, can cut a promo that would make the WWE proud, and is an aggressive recruiter. All of that can be true but it’s also true that he has only been a coach for two seasons and has lost all the important games he’s played. He lost to Georgia which shouldn’t be held against him but he’s also 0-3 against Washington including 0-2 in 2023 with a PAC-12 championship and a spot in the CFB Playoff on the line.
Bret Bielema has three Big Ten championships with Wisconsin and is in the process of turning around a historically bad program with half the resources of Oregon. Cignetti has won multiple FCS national championships and went 19-4 at James Madison. Luke Fickell went undefeated in back-to-back seasons at Cincy and brought a G5 team to the playoffs. Oregon plays Illinois and Wisconsin this year and I’m going to pick them to win both games but I can’t justify putting Lanning over proven winners who have done it in the Big Ten or at multiple schools at multiple levels.
Lincoln Riley, USC
This is simple, James Franklin could go 19-8 in two years at USC in the PAC-12. I don’t think Riley could go 21-5 the last two seasons at Penn State in the Big Ten East. To be clear, with Riley’s last two rosters, I’d bet my next paycheck that Franklin would win the conference and make the playoffs. If Franklin has Caleb Williams at Penn State he probably wins the Big Ten last year. Riley is a good coach, Day, Riley, and Franklin all have issues when it comes to winning big games, especially against other top 5 programs but Franklin won at Vanderbilt and brought Penn State out of harsh sanctions while Riley went 7-6 with the soon to be no. one pick Caleb Williams didn’t win a conference title or make the playoffs either.
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Kirk may be better than the ninth-best coach in the conference but he refuses to develop an offense, had to be forced to fire his nepo baby son, and was in the Big Ten West. It’s hard to give credit to a guy who is winning despite himself. He also has had no real success against any Big Ten East team which also counts in his legacy.
David Braun, Northwestern
I struggled with Braun because you could argue going 8-5 at Northwestern was the best coaching job in the country last season. Especially when you consider the state of the program when he received it and the fact that Northwestern is facing multiple lawsuits from athletes in various sports regarding hazing and racial discrimination. I predicted Northwestern would win one game last semester and he won eight. Still, it was one season and the Big Ten is about to get harder, I’m rooting for him to do it again though!
Continue reading...